a southern gal gardens in the north

The best match EVER

and if you missed it, I am SO sorry.

To see my beloved Federer (and such a gentleman) lose in that epic battle was an incredible treat and honor. I was sobbing at the end and screaming throughout. But as he said, he will be back and we will be there for him.

From the Wimbledon's own Email

Day 13 Review

Just when you thought this tournament had seen everything – and it had seen a lot of things: Venus Williams winning her fifth title; the top four ladies’ seeds all eliminated by the end of the first week; the resurgence of Marat Safin; a first British girls’ winner since 1984 – this topped it all.

It will be called the greatest final ever. It was certainly the longest at 4 hours 48 minutes, and that is without the two rain delays.

On occasions, Nadal and Federer could only shake their heads and marvel at the quality of their opponent's shots. They were spectators, like the rest of us, to a masterclass in tennis. On other occasions, shots that would have beaten any other player were returned as winners.

Not only was the tennis of the highest quality, it was of the nerve-wracking variety as well: Federer went down two sets to love, he saved two Championship points, Nadal lost two tie-breakers, the fifth set was still going as it was getting darker, the players were tired. It was all too much.

When the dust settled, Nadal was the new champion, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (8-10), 9-7, and no one who saw this unforgettable match could say he didn’t deserve it.

All the talk had been about Federer breaking Bjorn Borg's record of five consecutive Wimbledon titles, it was the second seed who upstaged Borg, by becoming the first player to win back-to-back at the French Open and Wimbledon.

The other matches that day, despite the quality of their tennis, were eclipsed by this finale. For the record, Samantha Stosur and Bob Bryan won the mixed doubles, Jessica Moore and Polona Hercog claimed the girls’ doubles, while Chinese Taipei duo Cheng-Peng Hsieh and Tsung-Hua Yang were crowned boys’ doubles champions. In the Wheelchairs Masters Series, Dutch duo Robin Ammerlaan and Ronald Vink retained their Wimbledon title.

Yet it is to the men's singles final that we must return, and a final comment from the two protagonists. "In tennis, unfortunately there has to be winners and losers, there’s no draws," Federer said. "But I really had to push hard to come back. And I wasn't able to break him in the last three sets, but still I pushed him right to the edge. It's probably my hardest loss, by far. I mean, it's not much harder than this right now."

"I just say, 'Good tournament. Sorry'," is how Nadal relayed his thoughts to Federer after the match. "Because I know how tough is lose a final like this. This is tougher than last year, and last year I was very disappointing in the end. So he is a great champion, no? His attitude always is positive when he lose, when he win. Always accept the victories and the losses with the same humble for him."

A line from Rudyard Kipling’s poem If was the last thing the players saw before they entered Centre Court, yet it is another stanza that so aptly summed up this final:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on'

****

After a long hiatus during with there was much work in the garden and a long trip abroad, life resumes.

Much more soon.

Wednesday

Did a bit of planting Wednesday

Late last summer and last fall bought a bunch of perennials (Home Depot and sale at local nursery) but somehow lost steam to get them planted. Most of them seemed to have overwintered ok (the asters didnt make it sadly).

So after the major spring cleanup and then much positioning and moving and removing to figure out the best places, finally yesterday (a fairly warm day for April - hi 70's) decided to get on with it.

1. Fig Tree
Huge hole dug in bed 7 and potbound fig wrenched removed from its huge plastic pot. Set in hole and backfilled etc watered thoroughly.

Of course first had to remove all the bulbs planted in the center of this bed (last spring) to make room for this - will order more to underplant here. Moved bulbs and many little babies to the containers near the bench.

2. The corner bed (Bed 5)
This is one of the reasons I have waited to deal with the pots. In my ongoing war (who knows the score?) with the neighborhood groundhogs (UGH) this was a major battlefield last year. One of them decided to dig a hole in the very back corner UNDER the fences that met there (from three fences) and in the process spewed all the sandy dense dirt onto this bed - killing most of the plants there - all of the yarrows and half of the echinops. I was so furious that I couldn't deal with it.

But I bought a bunch of euonymus and astilbes and had them clustered back there. There are also two camellias and three bleeding hearts. After much rearranging etc, finally decided on a plan.

Moved one bleeding heart. Put two of the euonymus in front of the arborvitae and two astilbe between them. Two more of the astilbe went along the fence behind the camellias and the third astible will be in front of them (a neighbor came by before that was done).

Today will plant that last astilbe and a hydraganea that was a present from my housemate's mother for giving her a birthday party (the housemate) . Not sure if the H is still alive but just noticed a shoot near the base - it overwintered in the shadiest corner of the yard so that may be why it hasn't taken off - but the stems are greening up so I am going to give it a shot.

Probably will put another Hydraganea in this bed to finish off the plantings - that would allow me room for spring bulbs which I have held off before now.

Need to more the one poor remaining yarrow to another bed - probably in bed 4 which is just below it . I need something for the back along the stone edging and near the buddejia. This will definitely be ordered from Graceful Gardens (GG).

Moved the echinops from this bed 5 to the rose bed which has delphiniums and foxgloves - although need more foxgloves as only three have come back ..so far but I don't think the rest will come up given this is the bed with all the squirrel damage - and since I am not putting out bird seed until much later this summer -if at all - I should be able to get new ones to grow and survive. Another on the GG list.

Anyway moved the three surviving echinops to the back of the bed near the third euonymus and in front of the barberry bush and some bulbs. The euonymus is in front of one of the climbing roses (New Dawn) and will provide shade and fill in that spot in front of the rose.

So that was it for the day after much watering - especially of the rhododendrons which were just ready to bloom - one bush has bloomed today.

[check back for photos for now I need to go do today's work]

Today -
-plant the hydraganea
-plant the last astilbe
-plant seeds
container sweet peas
hanging basket (figure out)
third planter behind bench (vines?)

and tonight is knitting group so as its mid afternoon I best be moving!

Tuesday update

Saturday spent a long afternoon and early evening in the garden. More cleanup and all those little things like:

- cleaned up the ivy along the back wall.
I know this may be really anal but I am not going to let this ivy take over - I spent a bit of time pruning, cutting back and redirecting i.e., winding the ivy thru the ald rusted cast iron fence (left over from who know's when).

-tied and cleared up the clematis (Sweet Autumn) along the same fence.
Some of it had grown up and over the adjoining back fence of the neighbor behind me. There are new owners in that property and they spent that last week (thank goodness) clearing out the bamboo stand that the previous owner had let take hold of one of the back corners. I will NOT miss this - it shed and shaded that corner and back of the garden and is much appreciated. I feel like taking them a cake! Anyway, pulled gently on the runaway clematis vine (it was a nice big fat chunky one) and retied it to the top of the fence. By today there are already lots of little sprouts (yeah)

-pruned rather aggressively the tall Rose of Sharon in the back corner.
I only keep these cause the landlady likes them. But they get pruned back as far as I can get away with each year. This one was about 20 feet tall and by lots of stretching and using the extra long lopers I was able to prune the branches down to a reasonable height (and cut off all those deadheads too).

-cleared up around the climbing roses along the back fence
These are coming in very well thank goodness. Planted late last year in June I was worried about their winter survival. Both are New Dawns which I love . Happy to say that they are growing beautifully and sprouting lots of leaves and branching out - hopefully will have some nice blooms along that fence this year - and will be able to develop a nice framework for next year and so on.

-clematis upkeep
All of the clematises (pl?) are coming up and some very vigorously - so thrilled. I love clematis with a wild unreasoned passion. Don't know why - I have seven and will order probably a half dozen more. There is a lot of vertical space to cover in this backyard and what better way? Anyway, tied up tendrils to trellises and fences on all of them except for the one that is a little behind the rest - but will be catching up soon. Unfortunately, several shoot ends were broken off but they are rooting nicely now in glass bottles (kept specifically for this).

-potting bench cleanup
took everything off and bleached and cleaned it as well as the slate tiles that act as the cover (found in a heap by the side of the road two years ago). everything was bleached and cleaned and dried and rearranged.

-general cleanup
Lots of little prunings etc.

So that was a good day. Sunday spent most of the afternoon with the laptop on the patio (with a very weak wireless connection that has been resolved since - more later) updating my spreadsheets from last year as to what was bought etc

Started a master spreadsheet of the CURRENT Growing Things. Need to continue to work on that.

Yesterday was a big house chore day.

Which brings us to today. After much research, had ordered a range extender for my wireless network. Although had regretted becoming an Amazon Prime member earlier this year with its annual fee, I reaped the benefits by getting the item TODAY after ordering it Monday.

There were lots of posts on the Nets about the configuration of this - but my wireless router is Linksys and so decided to take a chance on the Linksys range extender. After faithfully following the instructions which got me nowhere except with a RESET of the router's settings (including new keys! argh), decided to go with my gut and "played" around for a bit.

Gave my laptop a static ip and attached the extender by cable to the laptop. Went into the extender's setup and configured it with the correct WEP key.

Voila!

Set the range extender in the kitchen high up on a shelf. All is well now and am getting the same speed as get when in the next room from the router. (54 mbps)

So right now I am sitting on the patio (its after 8 pm) with my wireless speaker playing whatever WQXR has programmed (something baroque) and typing this entry while watching the dusk descend. [and my neighbors are listening to the ball game with one of them smoking a cigar which is not too obnoxious - the joys of the neighborhood backyards]

And thinking of the Grand Garden List.

1. Plant the few perennials that overwintered in pots (ran out of steam last fall) - some astibles, mums and veronica, a hydrangea which may or may not be alive.

2. Plant the fig tree which means moving a bunch of bulbs (probably to one of the containers).

3. Figure out what to order to fill in what did not survive. Graceful Gardens and Bluestone Perennials and some more bulbs from Becky and Brents. If I get the GG order in tonight, maybe Amanda will send it tomorrow so I can plant it this weekend (having ordered before I know it takes about two days). Have to be careful about ordering so that the plants don't sit in a warehouse over the weekend!

4 Figure out what seeds can be started now - its been pretty warm this week but each night has plummeted back to the low 50s. Already planted sweet peas in their planters by the back corner behind the bench. Need to check the dates and temps for the rest (long list = another post)

And your treat for reading this...

Saturday in the Garden

It was a nice sunny warmish day, by 300 pm it was in the mid 70s, rather warm for mid April.

This is the third year of this garden, not much hardscaping to do anymore, with one exception (a bed to rebuild due to an overzealous groundhog last year).

So its nice to see in the last few weeks many of the perennials coming up as well as the roses and clematis getting a good start on their growth.

Its really the first year that many of these are coming up since from the first to the second year many were lost due to very late planting that first year. However, last year planting was a bit earlier although still end of May - due to an international trip over the first two weeks of June.

This year there is another trip during mid June but as its only April 19th and so much is coming up... allowing the holes to be seen... an order to the favorite garden website (Graceful Gardens) can be placed shortly and planting done by the beginning of May.

Also will be growing a lot of annuals and vines from seeds (Renee's Garden). Last winter ordered rather a large amount and only planted a few of them (and a bit latish too). Part of today was spent reviewing the seed packets as to planting recommendations. Surprise there are quite a few that can be planted now. Most need to wait a few weeks til the nights are above 50 degrees.

Anyway. There is a lot of growth. Photos soon.

Spring Cleaning

Photos later ... too tired. (ADDED)

Today was the BIG CLEANUP for the garden. It was in the high 60s and sunny most of the day with a brief rain shower around 430 pm.

A lot was done

- all the leaves removed from all beds and raked and put in the trash bags to leave out on Monday morning (the only day garden waste is picked up).

- moved the bench and cleared all the dead bamboo stalks and leaves

- raked the lawn

- raked and swept all the leaves up from the patio.

- cleaned the patio furniture and the citronella candles/lanterns stupidly left out all winter - three of the five glass candle holders broke. oh well, live and learn.

- arranged the two huge trash bags under an old shower curtain in case it rains Sunday before moving the trash bags to the curb (they can't be put out until after 6 pm for the next day pickup).




and then sat with a huge glass of wine and listened to the night sounds and the end of a concert from the Frick Collection (over the wireless outdoor speaker).

Later today (its after midnight Sunday now) will add the lawn rakings to third trash bag (didn't get it done before the sun went down) and wash down the patio - now that the leaves are all gone. hopefully before the rain showers we are supposed to get in the afternoon. There are a few perennials that need planting - depending on the weather and how sore I might be - may plant them.

And then I need to tackle the front bed and planters - just need to clear up the winter debris and add it to the third trash bag - shouldn't take too long. (NB Did these on Sunday)

Of course as is usual the first day of garden work in the season, am sore in many places. But advil and a good night's sleep will help.

It will be great to sit and drink my first cup of tea of the day and see the results of Saturday's hours.

Winter in the garden

Scenes from a Southern Garden

Private garden, Prairieville, Louisiana

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in the garden

   

  

one of life's treats

figs…

see the recipe below from the inadvertent gardener

Grilled Figs with Rosemary and Honey
(Serves two)

6 fresh, whole figs, trimmed and halved (I used Calmyrna, but Mission would be great, too)
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary

1. Grill the figs over medium-high heat for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once midway through.
2. Divide between two plates. Drizzle one Tbsp. of honey over each plate of figs, then top each with a Tbsp. of the chopped rosemary.
3. Serve. Eat. Sigh.

there was a fig tree in our next door neighbor’s yard that was HUGE – it must have been at least 50 years old – in fact, i think it was planted by the neighbor’s father.  anyway, it produced the most wonderful figs – and we would go crazy eating them.  i still think the best way to eat figs is straight off the tree, juicy and full of the summer sun.

i would love to grow one here in the hudson valley but don’t think it would survive the winters – sigh.